Emily Paull

A Chinese Affair (Margaret River Press, 2016) Isabelle Li (I own a copy, courtesy agent) Isabelle Li's short story collection, released this month by local powerhouse, Margaret River Press, introduces a new voice to a burgeoning Australian short fiction scene.  These sixteen stories follow characters who have some connection to China, and are navigating the cultural divide between Australia and China, and the temporal divide of past and present.  Li's writing is skillful, and she deftly changes voices, tenses, points of view and even formats to experiment with what her short fiction can do.  Characters often appear as the lead in one story, only to turn up in another role a few stories into the book, reinterpreted again and again from many different points of view. The collection uses Chinese folklore and superstitions, as well as looking deeply into the role of language and translation.  One of the most prolific characters in the collection, Crystal, works...

Still Life with Teapot (Fremantle Press, 2016) Brigid Lowry (I own a copy courtesy of the publisher) I first came across Brigid Lowry's work when I read Guitar, Highway, Rose which I probably found in the treasure trove that was my primary school library.  While I have fond memories of that book, it wasn't until I picked up Lowry's book on writing, Juicy Writing , that I became a fan.   Juicy Writing was far from a technical manual on how to write-- rather it was a manifesto for how to be creative, how to have fun with words, and how to kick start the ideas that would otherwise lie unrealised in your brain. So when I saw that Brigid Lowry was to publish a book on writing, zen and creativity this year with Fremantle Press, I was ecstatic.   Still Life with Teapot  is part memoir, part anthology and part pillow-book, chronicling the writing life of this remarkable woman.  It incorporate's Brigid's own personal history and philosophy as well as the tenets...

I can't believe another month is over.  After the nightmare (okay, so it wasn't that bad) that was May, June was like a dream, and it flew by. I got lots of reading done, most of it in the last two weeks.  For the last week of June I was enjoying a lovely home holiday, during which I managed to pass 50 000 words on my work in progress and make some important decisions about where this draft has to differ from the previous one.  While I'm not the biggest fan of doing strict research, I am getting a lot better at it, and I took pride this month in straightening out some of the anachronisms I'd accidentally introduced into my work.  I have to say, I am really enjoying overcoming the many, many hurdles that keep popping up as I work on this manuscript. But this isn't a post about my writing... perhaps if anyone has writing related questions they can pop those in the comments below and I can do a writing update based on things you want to know. Without much further...

The Paper House Anna Spargo-Ryan Picador 2016 (I own a copy courtesy the publisher) Ever since Anna Spargo-Ryan popped up on my Twitter radar sometime early last year, I have been dying to read her debut novel, and now I finally have!  Aside from its gorgeous cover, this book features some of the most glorious, original, beautiful prose I have ever had the pleasure of reading, and I can say now that The Paper House  was certainly worth the wait. The book follows Heather and Dave, who find themselves the perfect house and begin preparing for the new life and their new family there.  But when tragedy strikes, everything about this new life becomes unfamiliar to Heather.  Her whole family is worried about her; her rough, unsentimental sister, Fleur, who takes time off from her farm to come and stay with them; her father, who turns up at the door in a florid Hawaiian shirt; Dave, who is sweet and charming and perfect and in many ways has to subvert his own grief ...